liii. 



SHAFTESBURY MEETING. 



The IMeeting, which was to have been held at Forde Abbey 

 in June, had to be abandoned in consequence of the ilhiess of 

 the owner, so that held on Monday, July 20th, and Tuesday, 

 July 2 1 St, at Shaftesbury became the first meeting of the summer 

 session. 



From various causes the attendance was not large ; the 

 members and their friends present at it numbered between 

 40 and 50. The majority of these came to Semley and Stur- 

 minster by train, and thence by omnibus to the Grosvenor 

 Hotel, Shaftesbury, where the Club established its head quarters. 



In the unavoidable absence of Lord Eustace Cecil, Mr. W. H. 

 Hudleston, of Holme, one of the Vice-Presidents, presided. At 

 two o'clock Mr. Doran Webb led the members from the hotel 

 to visit the chief places of interest in the town, the Mayor and 

 principal Aldermen and Councillors of the borough joining the 

 party. The first place visited was 



St. Peter's Church, 



where Mr. Doran Webb addressed the meeting. 



Before the Town Hal] was built the principal entrance to the church was 

 through the western porch, a 15th Century building with a stone-vaulted roof, 

 but for some years past the handsome ISth Century gates have for good reasons 

 been fastened up, and at present a door in the north aisle opening on the street 

 affords the only means of access to the building. 



The church, late Perpendicular in style, is the only one in the town that has 

 not been rebuilt. It consists of a nave and north aisle of equal length, a wide 

 south aisle, having a species of crypt beneath it, a western embattled tower, and 

 west porch. A structural chancel seems never to have existed, but doubtless a 

 high screen ran across the entire width of the building, that portion of the nave 

 eastwards of the screen forming the choir, having a chapel on either side. Built 

 into the walls of the chapel at the east end of the north aisle are canopied niches, 

 and on the floor is a stone slab with the indent of four shields, one at each corner. 

 In the centre of the slab is a brass plate with tliis inscription : — 



"Sub isto saxo timulat' corpus Ste^^h'i Payne armiger', fil' et hered' uiclii' 

 Payne, arm', quond' seueschali hujus monasterii, qui obiit xiijg die mens' 

 Decembris : Anno D'ni MCCCCOVIJ ; cujus a'ie p'piciet' altissimus D'e Amen." 

 Stephen Payne, Seneschal of the Abbey of Shaftesbury, held, says Hutchins, 



